Rev. Tessie Mandeville
March 2, 2008
Christ Covenant MCC
Decatur, GA 30030

I am willing to do just about anything to help us understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. For instance, sometimes I have us sing songs during a sermon to drive the point home. Sometimes I use props such as sports banners or trophies. And sometimes I put myself right in the middle of the gospel story to see what it feels like.

Today’s sermon is entitled, “Here’s Mud in Your Eye!” You’ll be happy to know that I don’t have a bucket of mud hiding up here so there’s no need to start ducking! How many of you have heard the phrase? “Here’s mud in your eye!” It’s the title that came to me, though I didn’t know what it meant or where it came from. So being the 21 st century preacher that I am, I Googled it and I found a variety of answers. “Here's mud in your eye!” is used as a toast when drinking. It expresses good spirits and friendly competition. The person saying it is really congratulating himself or herself, because the saying comes from the world of horse racing where the winning horse will kick mud into the eyes of those following. It’s also a phrase used between farmers getting ready to plow their fields and wishing each other a good season. It’s also associated with mudslinging in the political arena. But I think there’s a big difference between mudslinging which is meant to discredit a political opponent and the good spirit and friendly competition of the drinking toast. I’ve noticed that as we get closer to the upcoming Tuesday primaries, the presidential hopefuls are slinging some mud. All candidates no matter their party have a tendency to sling mud when tensions are high. Our task is to see through the mudslinging to the issues and I hope we can agree that no matter who we vote for in November, the most important thing is that we vote.

I kept searching for more information on Google and finally found the connection I was looking for, the reason that I intuitively chose this title. On Morten’s List of Toasts1, he says the phrase may have come from the Bible story in John 9 where Jesus literally used “mud in the eye” to heal someone. Apparently Jesus knew a few things about the healing qualities of mud. Mud poultices have been used from antiquity to the present day to ease pain, reduce swelling and help heal.

In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus spits in some dirt, makes mud and puts it on a blind man’s eyes. Now, I love Jesus, and I love you, but I don’t want Jesus’ spit, or yours, or even my own, in any mud on my body! However, on Friday I allowed my massage therapist to wrap me in mud from my shoulders to my toes so that I could put myself in the middle of the gospel story to see what it feels like. I told my therapist why I was there and she thought it was a wonderful idea so for 1 hour and 15 minutes, I was covered in mud and wrapped up a like a little burrito. (It’s not the practice to actually put mud in the eyes or on the face because those parts of the body are too sensitive.) And if you’ve never had a mud wrap you might consider having one sometime. It was a great experience, and I felt much better physically and emotionally when I left there and I look forward to continued benefits from this treatment. A detoxification process like this helps the body heal itself.

Jesus believed in and practiced healing himself and others. When he and his disciples traveled together on the Sabbath, they saw a man blind from birth and the disciples asked, “Who sinned: this man or his parents?” The basic Israelite beliefs at that time were that God either caused someone to be sick because they had sinned or that God allowed sickness for a divine purpose.2 Jesus tried to move the people away from that thinking because sometimes what we were taught doesn’t serve us anymore. Jesus said the man was born blind; in other words, there was no cause or purpose for the man’s blindness; he was simply born that way. Jesus healed this man, not because he had sinned and something was wrong with him; he healed him to show the power of God in his life.

The Pharisees heard about this miracle that took place on the Sabbath and questioned the man and his parents. The laws for the Sabbath were very clear: no one works that day, period. It was inconceivable to the Pharisees that Jesus was the Messiah because he was violating a sacred law. Even healing someone on the Sabbath was against the law.

I believe this story is as much about spiritual blindness as physical blindness. The Pharisees had some blind spots. They weren’t as concerned that this man was healed as they were that Jesus had broken a religious law. They were stuck in their personal stories about how things were “supposed to be” and they couldn’t even see that a miracle had taken place and what a gift from God it was.

We all have blind spots, those places where we just can’t quite see something. Usually other people can see it in us, but we can’t. And the best way to address these blind spots is to know ourselves better. Often that is a lot easier said than done. The author, Patricia Wheeler who wrote, Know Thyself and Know Thy Blind Spots says it this way: “Self-knowledge, at its most basic level, involves recognizing thoughts and emotions, decisions and biases, strengths and weaknesses…. Make no mistake: your emotions affect others, whether you are aware of them or not.  Operating with no awareness of them is like trying to operate heavy equipment with one hand tied behind your back. ”3

We all have blind spots. Those places of discrimination and prejudice that we can’t see and don’t usually want to talk about. We have blind spots in our relationships and sometimes we can’t see that the things that most upset or annoy us about someone else are the things that we don’t like about ourselves. And you might say, “Oh Pastor, I don’t believe that’s true. That doesn’t have anything to do with me.” Then try it on for one week. Examine more thoroughly why you react to a particular person so strongly and see if it comes back to something in yourself that you don’t like.

Jesus believed in and practiced healing himself and others. And one of the things that I love about this story is that Jesus got the man involved in his own healing. Jesus didn’t have to do that; he could’ve just healed him himself but I think Jesus understood how important it is for us to take responsibility for our healing. To actively pursue it instead of waiting for it to happen to us and then getting upset when it doesn’t. Jesus didn’t allow the man to be passive; he had to show agency and work in partnership with Jesus and the Spirit of God to get healed. Jesus put the mud on his eyes but the healing didn’t happen until the man went to the Pool of Siloam and washed his face.

The journey to healing and wholeness requires participation on our part. Our deepest healing will not happen by accident. My massage therapist put the mud on me but my healing won’t happen until I go to the pool and wash. In other words, my healing won’t happen until I address the thoughts and emotions that came up for me while I laid there. Very gently, I have to expose the dark places of pain, hurt, and woundedness to the light of God for them to be healed.

So much of our healing depends on our willingness to speak our truths out loud—the truths that we’re proud of and the truths that are painful. But we’re afraid of exposure. We’re afraid of what others will think of us, or that they’ll react harshly, or that they’ll stop loving us if they really know who we are.

But how did a man, who couldn’t see, find his way to the pool? We have no idea if the pool was close to where he and Jesus stood or if it was further in the distance. We have no idea if the path was smooth or if he had to climb over stones or rough spots along the way. Ibelieve he asked someone to help him get to the pool because along the road to healing and wholeness, we need help. We need people who will take us by the hand, hear our truths, lead us to the pool so we can wash and be healed—of our guilt and shame, our pain and sorrow.

The feminist theologian Nell Morton calls it “hearing one another into speech.” The power of healing is made known when we hear one another into speech, when we create a safe enough environment for people to share their stories out loud. That’s what we’re doing on Good Friday this year—hearing one another into speech. Bearing witness to one another’s truths.

All of us have blind spots. All of us have places in our lives that need healing. And to all of us Jesus is saying, “Here’s mud in your eye. The promise of healing and wholeness is yours. The pool’s right over there. Take the hand of your trusted friend and get going.” Blessed be and amen.

http://home.worldonline.dk/~mortenl/cheers.html

Jesus as Healer by John J. Pilch, 2007, Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, http://www.baylor.edu/christianethics/HealthArticlePilch.pdf

Know Thyself and Thy Blind Spots by Patricia Wheeler, August 2005

Copyright © 2008 by Rev. Tessie Mandeville. Permission granted for non- profit circulation with attribution of author and venue. Other rights reserved.